Call of Duty: Black Ops III Reviews
If they tried to give us something fresh and if it weren't for such a ruthlessly steep learning curve in the game's competitive multiplayer, I'd actually see this as Game of the Year material. Disregarding these drawbacks, Treyarch's shooter is still a product that offers quite a lot for the standard price tag. It's a solid and well-polished shooter.
But these concerns are pushed far to the margins of Black Ops III in favor of explosion porn and the crushing pressure of a forward momentum that propels you toward more things to see and do and shoot. You can almost feel the writers butting their heads against the constraints of a big-budget first-person shooter when it feels like they desperately want to write the next Philip K. Dick story. It's hard to be smart when you're mandated to deliver a violent thrill-ride that doesn't stop to throw on the brakes.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 proves why Activision's three-year development cycle for Call of Duty is necessary. Black Ops 3 packs a huge amount of new content and feature innovations, along with keeping the core features that everyone knows and respects.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 feels like a progression of the series as opposed to the advancement past entries from Treyarch delivered. Still it is hard to argue with how much is packed into this release, and I found myself exploring it all over and over again. The sheer amount of content makes up for the lack of innovation in some areas, and while I don't think it stands out as much as Advanced Warfare, it still keeps me playing a series I never thought I would care about year in, and year out.
The addition of online co-op gives the campaign mode a great boost. There are some irritating connectivity issues in co-op and zombies though. The competitive multiplayer is much smoother and reliably packed with maps, modes and a dizzying array of unlocks. You'll struggle to find a shooter with more value than this year's Call of Duty.
Black Ops 3 is a well-rounded game that doesn't take the series forward. Its packed with a solid multiplayer experience, an okay campaign but loaded with a ton of content that'll surely keep its fans busy and happy.
While the campaign is lacklustre and Zombies is over-designed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 succeeds thanks to the multiplayer's perfect mix of structured maps, diverse specialists and liberating movement.
Black Ops III really is a mixed bag. On one hand you have possibly the best multiplayer experience since Call of Duty 4, with a strong set of maps and a hugely immersive Zombies campaign to go with it. It's just a shame that it's been let down by a campaign that has some great ideas, but doesn't know where to run with them. I'm sad to say that I think the days of the good Call of Duty campaign are behind us, with last year's decent outing being the exception. Still, there's a lot of content here. In terms of a multiplayer shooter, Black Ops III is easily the best that Activision has published in a long time. After being roped back on board the Call of Duty train last year, I think I might as well buy an Oyster Card at this point, because it has its hooks in me once again. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Call of Duty 4's campaign again.
If you are the type of player that skips a couple years or only focuses on Treyarch's installments of the game, this would be the one to pick up. The customization aspect is a very nice addition, and the campaign feels long enough and worth the time investment.
The game is filled to the brim with content, most of it disappointingly or needlessly executed.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is the most extensive Call of Duty game ever made, but not without its flaws. Dour storytelling and purely incremental changes to multiplayer prevent it from reaching the legendary status of its predecessors.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a fantastic package filled to the brim with enjoyable content. The new addition of cooperative campaign, super soldiers, and fun game modes tie this together as one of my favorite Call of Duty games to date. I feel that this COD will outlast the recent ones and will continue to keep gamers engaged at least until the next Call of Duty game!
Compared to past entries, keep in mind that Black Ops III falls squarely in the middle of the series in terms of overall quality.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III continues the evolution that began in last year's Advanced Warfare. The current-generation of the mega popular war shooter series impresses with (some) freedom of choice and fun abilities. So much so that most of the time, the rather pedestrian visuals and unmemorable story won't be a deal breaker. Especially, when you consider all the extra content like a second zombie themed campaign.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III flips the script a bit by serving what's arguably the weakest campaign in the Black Ops series but redeems itself with a fresher and more content-filled multiplayer with its online and zombie modes. The addition of new specialists and faster, more fluid movement within more layered maps adds plenty of extra polish to the game's traditional mechanics. Zombies mode also gets extra depth in terms of both production and gameplay. Although it doesn't revolutionize shooters per se, it's one of the more polished entries in the genre this generation.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III tries to do several things, and does so with differing degrees of success. It all boils down to what you look for in the series. I put most of my eggs in the multiplayer basket and it delivers, but your mileage may vary.
Call of Duty is the Coca Cola of the game industry. Popular, unchanging, and tastes good to most, but it's still the same stuff.
If you're going to be buying Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, you're doing it for Zombies and a fresh multiplayer experience after a year of Advanced Warfare. It sure as heck isn't going to be for the campaign, which is the worst we've seen in quite some time.
Black Ops 3 makes up for a terrible single-player campaign with great multiplayer.
The graphics get a little prettier, the story gets a little darker, and another Call of Duty counts time as we march together toward death.